Day 18, Tuesday, June 16, 2026: First tree is in!

The crew was up and going around 8 am on this sunny but windy morning. We had rock piles to finish and water flow to contour. We had to make sure that all our layered waterfall rocks that had taken so much effort to balance on our rock stacks actually got the water flow as we had envisioned. Thus far, we had water leaking from the cracks and the sides. It was high time we unveiled the foam gun! After the foaming, we continued to look for large rocks from the rock quarry that looked like it’s been pillaged by some rock pirates.

While P, P2 and D continued to wrestle with the liner for some more time, Y filled out most of the stream with supply from our river rocks.

The foaming crew signaled that they were almost done, and had carved out 2-3 flat spots for the planting crew. Y called E and they gathered ingredients for the soil mix that would work well for the rock stack plants – mostly pea gravel, some garden soil and a little coarse sand. When E and Y were finally ready to start planting a few of the spots, they heard from the foaming crew that some of the large rocks atop the spillway might need to be moved once we ran the motor. Now that would simply not do for any newly placed plants. So, E and Y decided to put a pin in this exercise and moved on to other tasks. By about 11, the morning shift had wrapped up, and the crew grabbed a breakfast bagel.

Around late morning, the crew heard lots of sirens and saw smoke billowing in the wind over in the distance by Kalamoir Regional Park. The provincial Wildfire service had dispatched airtankers and water scoopers to mitigate the fire. We were fortunate enough to not be in the path of the smoke or fire, though the strong wind continued to blow throughout the day, coating everything in a thick layer of dust.

P and P2 had left after the morning shift, but the rest of us carried on our work while keeping an eye out on the fire. E joined us and worked on lining up medium sized rocks around the mouth of the top of the waterfall over by the lower pond. Y, meanwhile, worked on resetting the bog shelf rocks to an upright position so they would be visible above the water line, as well as lined the bog shelf with pea gravel. 

In the late afternoon shift, D and Y built out another terraced landing next to our Ash trees. They brought in several wheel barrows worth of soil from our rock quarry site. This landing was lined with some big rocks again that they dragged in using the hand cart. Next, while Y grabbed a late lunch, D dug up a hole in between the edge of the rocks lining the landing and the rock stack by the top waterfall. We had to dig 4”-6” close to the edge of the rock lined wall as we did not want the Spruce tree to completely block out access to the rock stack from one side.

When D and Y came back from their coffee break at 5:30 pm, P had joined them. P was greeted by the sight of the oldest rock in his collection (since he was 2 or 4 years), Stony that E had found for him. P is still deciding whether Stony would grace any part of our Zen garden!

Next, we moved on to the task of lining the lower waterfall sides with yet more rocks to conceal the liner. Given that the foam takes 12 hours to dry, we decided it was best to foam the bottom waterfall as well so that we could run the motor tomorrow. P worked on spraying and foaming the rocks needed while standing on the waterfall spill rocks, while D and Y supported him with the materials. 

In the evening, we received another update from K on the progress of the bridge. K sent us a few different profiles for handrails as well as snapshots for the rails in the making. We all agreed with K’s choice to keep the hand railing circular in profile for the best comfort!

Meanwhile, back in West Kelowna, some of us were all but ready for supper. D and P continued to adjust the gravel and rock profiles in the lower pond. They also continued to debate the merits of placing our tumbled flat rocks close to the pond or slotting them vertically in an attempt to hide the liner beyond the gravel. Thankfully, it was time for food – it had been a long day!